Sites supported by the World Wide Web and accessible through the Internet have become a very popular way for many businesses and individuals to offer goods and services. Advances in technology have enabled dramatic increases in Internet connection speeds and computer power as well as decreases in cost, thereby opening the door for small businesses to build an online presence and allowing such small businesses to compete on a level playing field with larger companies. Indeed, the number of small businesses that operate Web sites continues to increase at a steady pace.
For some companies, particularly small companies, the Web is the principal, or perhaps only, manner for advertising and/or offering their goods and services. In addition to maintaining their own Web sites, many companies pay third parties to advertise their goods and services on the third parties' Web sites. Still others create links to and from third party Web sites, thereby establishing relationships with strategic Web partners and increasing traffic to their sites. For these reasons and others well known to those skilled in the art, continuous accessibility and error free operation of a company's Web site, and the Web sites of those that are linked to or affiliated with the company, are critical to maintaining a viable Web based business.
Studies show that, on average, many Web sites experience some type of error event approximately once every two months. For many reasons, there exists a need for companies to identify any instances in which their sites (or those of third parties) are experiencing errors. For example, if an error on a site is detected, attempts to resolve such error can be made. In addition, many companies who advertise on others' Web sites may tolerate only a minimal time period during which such sites are experiencing errors. Similarly, companies building alliances with other Web-based businesses or investing in such businesses may require that a Web site be experiencing minimal or no errors for a certain percentage of time prior to beginning a relationship with such Web-based business or continuing such a relationship. Moreover, Web-based businesses may be interested in learning that the percentage of error-free time for their Web site is very small. This type of information could serve as a valuable marketing tool. Along these same lines, companies may be interested in learning about the Web site difficulties or successes of their competitors.
Thus, there exists a need for Web site monitoring services to enable users to track and evaluate the performance of their Web sites or the Web sites of others. At present, there are two different varieties of Web site monitoring services, remote monitoring and on-site monitoring. Many companies currently providing remote monitoring services present a relatively complex offering of services and may charge relatively high fees for such services. Thus, such remote monitoring services likely focus on serving larger Web-based businesses. On-site monitoring involves use of software that is either downloaded or installed and resides on the customer's servers. Such software is used to monitor systems, intranets and test loads on the customer applications. On-site monitoring software applications typically involve relatively high up front costs in addition to monthly license fees. Thus, on-site software is not a practical solution for small businesses with a limited budget. In general, such software usually monitors only the systems of the particular customer that has installed the software on its servers and does so locally, not remotely. Thus, such software does not provide a comprehensive monitoring solution.
Therefore, there exists a need for a free service which remotely monitors the operation of potentially all Web sites accessible via the Internet and reports the results of such monitoring in a convenient fashion to any party which may be interested in such information. The need is particularly acute for small businesses of limited resources, which depend on the relatively continuous and error-free operation of their Web sites to succeed.
In addition to this identified need, there exists a need on the part of monitoring service providers to reach the market of potential service recipients in an effective, scalable and cost efficient manner. Traditional methods of identifying, acquiring and retaining customers include, for example, direct advertising to target audiences. However, such methods are less than desirable because they may not reach a large enough audience, are relatively expensive to employ on a per customer basis, and result in relatively low customer acquisition and growth rates. Thus, the need for a comprehensive method of identifying potential recipients of monitoring services and a low cost, rapidly scalable method of acquiring customers which results in high retention rates and recurring revenue is apparent.